How to make a better beeswax candle? In an undertaking dedicated to the creative spirits of their grandmothers, Brooklyn artisans Shiho Hashimoto and Megumi Togo of Sono.ei make candles in ethereal pastels.

Product designer Alvaro Catalán de Ocón is the genius behind the PET Lamp, a global project devoted to turning castoff soda bottles into artisan-made woven pendant lights. Fittingly, he himself lives in a defunct lamp factory in Madrid that he repurposed as a colorful live-work space.